Content Paradise complete site overhaul announced!

[Ken1171]

Then it would be up to the vendors to do the Beta/QAV testing for their products, and from what I'm understanding, most vendors there (unlike yourself and other vendors who really know what they're doing) don't care, and that's very sad.

I don't really know, I can't speak for the other vendors there. But it's true - until now CP vendors have to QAV their own stuff, which is highly unusual. I always beta-test my own stuff internally before sending products to the store, but the fact that CP won't test anything on their side is rather innerving to me. There is always a chance this will chance with the new store, because we all know this is not normal. We'll see.

 

[Ken1171]

But in all honesty you're not hurting CP you're hurting the vendors. You want to hurt CP, stop buying buying Poser, or Moho or whatever.

That's pure truth. SMS doesn't depend on CP for living, but vendors do. By boycotting CP, the only ones being punished are the vendors. It makes absolutely no pressure on SMS because they won't even know if I sold something or not. Unless you tell SMS directly, they will never even know you have disagreed with a policy.

If people are unhappy with a CP policy, the right thing to do would be to tell SMS about it, because they are the ONLY ones who can do something about it. Vendors have no control over store policies. And here again, policies have changed twice since I became a vendor there. I can't be blamed for what it is now. I make no profit from extended download fees. I don't even know what the policies will be after Friday. None of us do.

 

[Mythocentric]

I made that decision over 10 years ago, when things were quite different, and way before SMS acquired Poser. Who knows who will own Poser tomorrow? Things change all the time.

That's rather a lopsided view isn't it? If people don't shop at CP because CP charge them for extended downloading, they are boycotting CP (and SM) for imposing that extra financial burden, not the vendors. It could be equally argued that a vendor, aware of that extra charge, and still chooses to sell their products there knowing that it will probably mean fewer sales is responsible for their own actions (and potential loss of business). That's your decision and you are solely responsible for your action and no one else. To be honest I find that remark about the customers unfairness for boycotting CP somewhat disparaging just because they choose to exercise their right not to buy from a company who places an extra charge on something they've already purchased. You made the decision (along with CP's other vendors) to sell there, aware of CP's policies so the only blame lies with yourself. Not the customer. Hopefully, that will become a thing of the past on the Friday 15th. We can only wait and see.

No, it lies with the customer. Your choice, and you don't HAVE to pay the download fee. Hell, some people just don't want to have to take it out of their cart. And look, I'm not saying that you have to shop there if you don't want to. But in all honesty you're not hurting CP you're hurting the vendors. You want to hurt CP, stop buying buying Poser, or Moho or whatever.[/QUOTE]




OK! So instead of boycotting CP we boycott SmithMicro (who “It is more or less known that SMS never wanted CP in the first place.”) And (I’m extrapolating here!) if enough people boycott SM, Poser comes to a sad end (taking CP with it) not to mention all those Poser users (who would I admit probably soldier on with whatever version they own) until all those venders who currently create for Poser realise they are flogging a dead horse and either switch to DS or give up with the loss of how many livelihoods (including content providers like Hivewire), and all because one vendor puts the blame on the customers rather than his own suspect business sense, despite the evidence of 10 year’s experience. Yep! That would work!

With due respect to Ken, I hope and pray that there is a big sea change on Friday. Given the quality of his releases here he deserves to succeed, but if CP keeps its outdated policies intact perhaps it might be time to consider moving his existing products from CP to the Hive!

Incidentally. Isn’t SM upgrading CP because of the number of people who have made comments about the sites outmoded appearance and outdated policies compared to every other content provider in response to SmithMicro’s new team or should we assume that they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts rather than accepting that an updated, modern site with well-presented content makes for good business practice and increased profits for SM, CP and it’s vendors?

 

[Ken1171]

OK! So instead of boycotting CP we boycott SmithMicro

Why not just express your concerns to SMS, like I do whenever I have something that needs discussing? Poser is already undergoing a tough period as it stands. It needs your support, not your boycott. We have to put things in perspective here. SMS didn't want CP until now, but that has obviously changed in light of the recent announcement that they have revamped the whole thing, and will reopen the brand new CP in just 2 days.

What if everything changes after Friday? You would had been punishing CP vendors for no reason all this time, and they are still the only ones being affected - the ones whose only work is to create new contents for YOU.

In all this time, whenever I had any issues with SMS, I have always talked directly to them. SMS will not guess what you want if you don't tell them. Instead of harming the vendors, why not making a signed list where people demand for unlimited downloads for their purchases? Of course, only if things haven't changed after Friday.

If none of this is good enough for you, then your only choice is to quit Poser and switch to DAZ Studio. You will never have to deal with SMS or CP again, BUT now you have a much bigger headache - having to deal with DAZ.

 

[quietrob]

I'm not boycotting Poser. I do choose where to buy my content. Everything that has been brought up and been talked about for years. I'll wait and see. If they are smart, they are at this forum and reading these comments.

So there!

 

[Mythocentric]

As you say we’ll keep things in perspective and hopefully context!



To start, please do not assume that you are the only one who talks to SM. I know for a fact that a whole bunch of people have responded to SM’s request for ideas, myself included! You seem to be under the impression that discussing it here automatically means that they are ignoring SM. We are not! Not only myself but a lot of other people have come forwards with ideas and suggestions for improvements, including to CP.

The very fact that CP is in the process of improvement proves that they are being listened to. Not just you, but you, me and a good number of other people. I would also add that that is in spite of one moderator on the CP forum (And I hold my hand up here and confess I cannot remember which one apart from that person being female) who responded to those suggestions and dismissed them along the lines of ‘SmithMicro make software. They are not content providers and have no interest in becoming content providers, etc’. Happily, SmithMicro has proved her wrong which can only be to the benefit of us all.

What if everything changes after Friday? I certainly hope it does but until Friday comes we can only indulge in speculation. I’ve already said that I personally hope that includes getting rid of those unfortunate charges for extended downloads because if they don’t that for many people will leave CP dead in the water. In short the same old site with a prettier face. To that, I would also remind you of the other reasons a lot of people don’t buy at CP, including myself. The bad presentation, the poor quality of much of its content, the difficulty in actually finding the content you may be interested in all spring to mind, and I’m certain that other people will be able to add to that list!

What I have queried is your business sense and your response by blaming customers for your poor showing at CP. Given the above, all of which are verifiable can you honestly claim that you are not at fault by persisting with a site which up until now has done nothing to help improve your situation? To blame poor vendor results on customers for boycotting CP because of its many faults is, quite frankly, ridiculous! Surely at some point in the last ten years, the thought crossed your mind that the simple answer was to move your content elsewhere?

Neither does your statement, “You would had been punishing CP vendors for no reason all this time, and they are still the only ones being affected - the ones whose only work is to create new contents for YOU,” hold any water. The reason people boycott CP is simply that, up until now it has been little more than an eyesore. That has nothing to do with punishing the vendors but it does have a lot to do with business priorities as seen by SM. The fact is that, even with the revamp, CP has a whole lot of ground to make up because it's entering a market in direct competition with some very well established content providers, including our own Hivewire3D. Again, depending on what CP actually come up with on Friday, we can only speculate, and I do sincerely hope, given the quality of your work, it is to your benefit. Failing a suitably satisfactory outcome, however, I can only trust that you will at least give some thought to moving your content to a site where it will be appreciated!

Finally, to return to your original statement: “Poser is already undergoing a tough period as it stands. It needs your support, not your boycott. We have to put things in perspective here.”

I fully agree with you on that point Ken. I have not at any point suggested boycotting Poser nor am I likely to at any point in the future. I have already made it clear elsewhere in one of this forums threads that I am and will remain a confirmed Poser user. Indeed I was taken to task, again for something I had not said, because of that commitment. That suggestion came from another poster, i.e. “You want to hurt CP, stop buying Poser, or Moho or whatever.”

That’s not going to happen despite any number of flippant remarks! And at this point I believe it is time to bow out and put this particular conversation to rest. Respect.

 

[Hornet3d]

Backing up doesn't cost anything. I have backups of stuff I've bought at DAZ, CP, Rendo and RDNA, just in case. I still don't know if I can get anything from DAZ on RDNA. I've looked through my product library there and don''t see anything from RDNA. Oh, and backups from Hive wire too.

I must admit I have the same view on this. I do understand anyone's annoyance with having to pay for a service which is, by and large, free elsewhere but I could have understood it more if the charge was not optional, but it is. I also firmly believe that having lifetime downloads, while being a nice safety net should not be used to replace a basic backup strategy. Anything could happen in the future, look at what happened to RDNA.

I have multiple backup strategies, but I still keep my account open at Rendo for the sole purpose of possible future downloads, on the basis of why burn bridges unless you absolutely have to. Despite that I am as confident as I can be I will not need those downloads as I have everything backed up at home and at other locations, which includes all my photos and my music that have no lifetime download schemes, free or otherwise.

I have purchased from CP, although I don't like the present site and welcome the change but I have never yet paid for an extended download there. The same can be said for Corel and any other companies with a similar policy.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

I rarely ever shop at Content Paradise. Not because of the optional extended download charge, but because the quality of products is so unpredictable. I didn't realize products didn't go through QA, which explains a lot after all.

We've seen numerous brokerages disappear, which means that our ability to re-download content purchased from those brokerages also disappeared. So being able to download content "forever" from a brokerage isn't a primary consideration for shopping or not shopping at a brokerage.

In actuality, there is a lot of content I purchased I'd never miss if I lost it. In 2010 when I had to reinstall my content because of a hard drive failure, I didn't bother installing a lot of my content. Periodically, I think I should go through and remove installed content I no longer use. But, that's a big task, so I procrastinate on doing so :wink:

I don't really have an opinion one way or the other about Smith Micro redesigning Content Paradise. I'll probably check it out, but a site design isn't going to change my shopping habit in terms of Content Paradise. Now, if they begin doing QA ... that's another story. But, if that was their intent, I'd have expected to see an announcement about that. As a software company, they KNOW internal testing/QA is important.

Still ... if the site redesign is a result of customer feedback, that's a good thing.

Funny thing ... I happen to work with a bunch of programmers who are also very good at web design. I suspect the lack of a good web design at Content Paradise was more that it wasn't important to the companies that owned Poser and Content Paradise than it was incompetent designers.

 

[Hornet3d]

I rarely ever shop at Content Paradise. Not because of the optional extended download charge, but because the quality of products is so unpredictable. I didn't realize products didn't go through QA, which explains a lot after all.

We've seen numerous brokerages disappear, which means that our ability to re-download content purchased from those brokerages also disappeared. So being able to download content "forever" from a brokerage isn't a primary consideration for shopping or not shopping at a brokerage.

In actuality, there is a lot of content I purchased I'd never miss if I lost it. In 2010 when I had to reinstall my content because of a hard drive failure, I didn't bother installing a lot of my content. Periodically, I think I should go through and remove installed content I no longer use. But, that's a big task, so I procrastinate on doing so :wink:

I don't really have an opinion one way or the other about Smith Micro redesigning Content Paradise. I'll probably check it out, but a site design isn't going to change my shopping habit in terms of Content Paradise. Now, if they begin doing QA ... that's another story. But, if that was their intent, I'd have expected to see an announcement about that. As a software company, they KNOW internal testing/QA is important.

Still ... if the site redesign is a result of customer feedback, that's a good thing.

Funny thing ... I happen to work with a bunch of programmers who are also very good at web design. I suspect the lack of a good web design at Content Paradise was more that it wasn't important to the companies that owned Poser and Content Paradise than it was incompetent designers.

I tend to hang on to things so I regularly archieve my runtimes so that I can recover them but they are not part of my working content, mind you, as yet I have never opened any of the archives.

I think you are right in that the web site was not badly designed so much as being forgotten and unloved for so long, just like me it is beginning to show it's age and is well past it's best.

 

[Ken1171]

Hmm, Satira has a good point there. If the new CP would have QAV, they would notify the vendors of the submission changes, but that didn't happen.

 

[Miss B]

True, it wasn't even mentioned in a post by an SMS person who's a Global Moderator on the SM Poser forum. All she mentioned was:

"The current changes to CP do not require changes to existing products available on the site. As a continuous effort we do recommend that any of our sellers review their products regularly, that way it's ensure they are updated and the promotions associated are quality renders and highlight their full potential."

Of course, I'd rather they put together a QAV team, as that WILL ensure a better quality of product and promo renders.

 

[Ken1171]

They are just referring to the quality of the promo images. ;p

 

[Miss B]

I don't know Ken, I thought she was referring to both the promos AND the products themselves.

 

[Ken1171]

Yes, throwing the QAV responsibility back to the vendor.

 

[quietrob]

Does The Hive have a QAV team for products or does that fall upon the vendor as well?

 

[eclark1894]

Alisa is in charge of QAV for the Hive i believe.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Absolutely, HiveWire has a QAV team, and as Earl said, Alisa is the QAV bosslady.

HiveWire QAV is thorough, too.

 

[Glitterati3D]

Does The Hive have a QAV team for products or does that fall upon the vendor as well?

As with every store, primary responsibility for quality, consumer ready products falls to the vendor. But every other store, besides CP, has QA that products must pass as well.

Hivewire's is very thorough which can be confirmed by the fact that you see few posts saying "product x isn't behaving properly" by customers.

When you see customer's posting on forums and facebook, etc. about products that don't perform as advertised, that is a failure of QA to catch those issues before the products are posted for sale.

 

[Miss B]

Absolutely, HiveWire has a QAV team, and as Earl said, Alisa is the QAV bosslady.

HiveWire QAV is thorough, too.

That they are!

 

[Ken1171]

QAV at HW has improved considerably comparing to how it was in the beginning. It's better for a product to bounce back from QAV than to have customers to find show-stopping flaws.